Research information at TIB

Universities and research institutions worldwide have begun to bundle the information about the output of their researchers in current research information systems (CRIS) in a modern and systematic way. In recent years, this development has also reached Germany. Research information is a key resource for institutional research intelligence. They make it possible to strategically develop one's own institution at any time with comprehensive, reliable and comparable information. Research information systems help to generate reports according to modern national standards (in Germany primarily the "Research Core Dataset" - Kerndatensatz Forschung (KDSF)) for third-party funders and ministries. Last but not least, research information systems can help to provide visibility to experts of one's own institution to the press and the public, and to give all researchers a meaningful profile page that can be customized individually and modified according to one's own ideas.

News

The Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) has been successfully consulting, researching and developing research information systems for several years, especially in the context of making research results visible and networking them. Since 2013, the TIB has been involved in the worldwide community for the development and dissemination of VIVO, an open source software for displaying networked researcher profiles on the Internet. VIVO is used for the presentation of scientific outputs, for network analysis, for research reporting and as an expert finder system. The consistent focus on linked data, open standards and ontologies makes VIVO a flexible solution for a wide range of applications. While VIVO has been used internationally for many years by numerous institutions, including some of the most renowned universities in the USA, it is now also meeting with increasing interest in German-speaking countries.

The activities of the TIB include the organization and hosting of the German-language VIVO workshops, but also numerous development activities around VIVO and the core data set research, the development of which we have been accompanying since 2014. We are also working nationally and internationally on the further development of the software and the ontologies used in VIVO. One of our main goals is to establish VIVO as a research information system in German-speaking countries.

Own developments (selection)

Advanced Role Management

Increased security through password hashing with Argon2i

Implementation of the Research Core Dataset (KDSF) for VIVO

Collaboration on the German translation of VIVO, as well as on the VIVO-DE ontology extension

Commitment

Duraspace membership of the Technical Information Library since 2017

Cooperation in numerous committees in the CRIS community (including VIVO Leadership Group, Crossref Event Data Advisory Group), in various VIVO task forces (Ontology Improvement, Research Analytics etc.) and participation in international development sprints